Professor Ian Robertson of Trinity College Dublin, reports that among the lifestyle factors that keep the mind agile as a person ages are: physical fitness, stress management, a varied social life, mental stimulation, learning new things and thinking young.
Attitude is key, according to Robertson, because “If you start to think of yourself as old ‘you will behave old.’ Robertson’s colleague at Trinity College, Professor Marina Lynch, points to the importance of a healthy diet to preserving mental acuity.
Lynch notes that the omega-3 in fish oils may not only reduce the cell inflammation associated with memory decline by compensating for the age-related loss of natural anti-inflammatories, but may actually stop the rise in the chemicals that created the cell inflammation to begin with.